I was giving Queenie her bath this morning, she has one 3 times a week, i was drying her off when I noticed some problems with her shell. It looks like part of her shell underneath has come off, I'm really sad and anxious to see this.

She has been completely fine in herself and this must have only happened within the last week as i check her regularly.

Her appetite is great, in fact you would think i starve her the way she rushes across to her food each morning! I was a little concerned recently that she wasn't going to the toilet as regularly as she used too, but this seems to have returned to normal.

She has a really good and varied diet.

Do you think she could have just caught her shell on some rocks in her enclosure?

i have included two pictures here, hopefully you can see this as my camera wasn't great!

I was worried about shell rot, but i really cant see how she would get this.

This looks like shell rot Nicola. It can be either bacterial or fungal. Buy some povidone iodine from your chemist, it's usually called videne, but brands can vary. Don't tell the chemist it's for animals as they aren't licensed for this, so best tell them it's for your grandads athletes foot or similar lol. Dilute the videne with water, around ten parts water to one part videne. Rub it onto the area daily with a cotton bud or similar. Be aggressive with the treatment, giving it a good scrub as you want it to sink into the tissues. Could take a month or so, but will clear up without vets help.

Thank you for your help. I ordered some from the chemist as they didn't have any in stock, so I can start treating her tomorrow.
It's been on my mind all day and night and I feel so bad that she has got this as I'm so cautious about removing uneaten food, checking the humidity etc.
I'm off out to by new substrate as well as I want to remove the one she currently has.

Don't beat yourself up about it, many keepers have experienced this including myself. It's not always linked to bad conditions. Yes, removing the current substrate is a good idea and also to change it frequently while the shell recovers. If there are any more loose bits, remove them to make sure the treatment gets where it should be. You will see new shell growing in eventually.

Just one more thing, i went to get my usual substrate but they had sold out, I had a look in Pets At Home (it was next door) and they had something called Tortoise Terrain, which it says is a "mixture of sterilised top soil, sand and limestone". Although it says it is suitable for tortoises, it is not what i would usually buy, so I wanted to make sure before i bought it.

Thank you for your help. I ordered some from the chemist as they didn't have any in stock, so I can start treating her tomorrow.
It's been on my mind all day and night and I feel so bad that she has got this as I'm so cautious about removing uneaten food, checking the humidity etc.
I'm off out to by new substrate as well as I want to remove the one she currently has.

Hopefully she will be on the mend soon.

Thanks again, this forum is such a great help :-)

I had to order mine from the chemist, it's really good and works a treat, keep us updated on her.